It’s the Sunday Movie Showdown, The American Film
Institute’s (AFI) Top 100 vs. the Internet Movie Databases’ (IMDb) Top 100.
Not much time to concentrate on the poor Showdown this week, but wanted to
get through a couple.
#32 - The Godfather Part 2 vs. Sunset
Blvd.
#30
– Apocalypse Now vs. Memento
(#31 – Maltese
Falcon vs. Lord of the Ring: The Two
Towers has already been covered)
I watched both The
Godfather and The Godfather Part 2
this week. The Godfather is ranked as
#2 for
 |
| Such a young Al Pacino |
both lists, but I wanted to watch them in order.
To make a short story shorter, I had forgotten how
great these movies are. Somehow they had become parodies of themselves in my
mind. All I could really remember were
Marlon Brando and horse heads and hear the “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t
refuse.”
But these movies so much more than that. Both are sweeping
epics about love and hatred and respect and family.
I have to admit, I am not as big a fan of Part 2 as the original Godfather. I know some consider it to be
just as good as the original, but not for me. I found the middle saggy and
confusing. But that young, brooding Al Pacino… Wow.
 |
| Gloria Swanson - Fabulous in Boulevard |
Sunset
Boulevard provided a pretty good fight against Godfather Part 2. I went into Boulevard scarred from having seen the
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version of the story. (That was the longest piece
of crap musical I have ever sat through. Seriously. ) I’m happy to say I
enjoyed the film much, much more.
Sunset
Boulevard is about an aging actress’ attempt to cope with
living out of the Hollywood limelight. It’s been called time and time again the
best Hollywood film ever made about Hollywood. And I agree. Definitely worth
seeing, if you haven’t.
But I just can’t give Boulevard my vote over The
Godfather Part 2 – if only for that very last scene in Godfather 2, so poignant. Godfather
2 shows up again as IMDb’s #3 against Casablanca.
I doubt I’ll have difficultly voting against it then. (Sunset Boulevard shows back up as #16, ironically, also against Casablanca).
#30
Apocalypse Now vs. Memento
I know some people love Chris Nolan’s Memento. As a matter of fact the IMDb people
love Christopher Nolan in general. He has five movies in the top 100 on IMDb, more
than any other director except Stanley Kubrick. Perhaps the IMDb peeps are
trying to make up for the fact that Nolan doesn’t make it onto the AFI list. At
all.
I like Nolan, but I’m not a huge fan of Memento. If you haven’t seen it, you
should. It will give you a nose bleed. But
for me, it’s too gimmicky and falls pretty flat. I’m a much bigger fan of Following, Nolan’s first film. But I’m
in the minority there.
Memento
vs. Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now?
No contest. Sorry. I don’t care how backwards you tell a story. Apocalypse Now is too iconic and classic
to be beat. (Apocalypse Now was IMDb's #37. It also won over The Best Years of Our Lives)
So this week, two more votes to AFI. (Although I must admit I'm still vacillating between Godfather Part 2 and Sunset Boulevard, even as I write this. That's how close it is.) But if I keep my decision as it is, then the score is currently AFI -42, to IMDb -30.
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AFI’s
Top 100
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IMDb’s
Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
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42
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30
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#11
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City Lights (1931)
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LoTR: Return of the King (2003)
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#19
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On the Waterfront (1954)
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LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
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#30
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Apocalypse Now (1979)
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Memento
(1990)
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#31
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)
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LoTR: The Two Towers(2002)
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#32
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The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Sunset
Boulevard (1950)
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#33
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
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Dr.
Strangelove (1964)
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#34
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937)
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Forrest
Gump (1994)
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#35
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Annie
Hall (1977)
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Leon: The Professional (1994)
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#36
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The
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
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Citizen Kane (1941)
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#37
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The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
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Apocalypse Now (1979)
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#38
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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
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North By Northwest (1959)
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#39
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Dr. Strangelove (1964)
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American Beauty (1999)
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#40
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The Sound of Music (1965)
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American History X (1998)
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#41
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King Kong (1933)
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Taxi Driver (1976)
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#42
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Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
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#43
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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
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Saving Private Ryan (1998)
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#44
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The Philadelphia
Story (1940)
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Vertigo (1958)
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#45
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Shane (1953)
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Amelie (2001)
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#46
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It Happened One Night (1934)
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Alien (1979)
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#47
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
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Wall E (2008)
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#48
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Rear Window (1954)
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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
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#49
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Intolerance (1916)
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The Shining (1980)
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#50
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LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
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Spirited Away (2001)
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#51
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West Side Story (1961)
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Paths of Glory (1957)
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#52
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Taxi Driver (1976)
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
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#53
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The Deer Hunter (1978)
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Double Indemnity (1944)
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#54
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M*A*S*H* (1970)
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To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
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#55
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North by Northwest (1959)
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The Pianist (2002)
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#56
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Jaws (1975)
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The Lives of Others (2006)
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#57
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Rocky (1976)
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The Departed (2006)
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#58
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The Gold Rush (1925)
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Memento
(2000)
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#59
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Nashville (1975)
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City Lights (1931)
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#60
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Duck
Soup (1933)
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Aliens (1986)
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#61
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Sullivan's Travels (1941)
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Eternal
Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
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#62
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American
Graffiti (1973)
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Requiem for a Dream (2000)
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#63
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Cabaret
(1972)
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Das Boot (1981)
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#64
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Network (1976)
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The
Third Man (1949)
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#65
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The African Queen (1951)
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L.A.
Confidential (1997)
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#66
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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
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Reservoir
Dogs (1992)
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#67
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Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
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Chinatown (1974)
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#68
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Unforgiven
(1992)
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The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
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#69
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Tootsie
(1982)
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Modern Times (1936)
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#70
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A
Clockwork Orange (1971)
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Life is Beautiful (1997)
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#71
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Saving Private Ryan (1998)
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Monty
Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
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#72
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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
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Back
to the Future (1985)
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#73
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Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
(1969)
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The
Prestige (2006)
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#74
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Silence of the Lambs (1991)
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Pan’s
Labyrinth (2006)
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#75
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In
the Heat of the Night (1967)
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Raging Bull (1980)
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#76
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Forrest
Gump (1994)
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Cinema Paradiso (1988)
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#77
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All
the President’s Men (1976)
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Singing In the Rain (1952)
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#78
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Modern
Times (1936)
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Some Like it Hot (1959)
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#79
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The
Wild Bunch (1969)
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
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#80
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The
Apartment (1960)
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Rashomon (1950)
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#81
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Spartacus
(1960)
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All About Eve (1950)
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#82
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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
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Amadeus
(1984)
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#83
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Titanic (1997)
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Once
Upon A Time in America (1984)
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#84
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Easy
Rider (1969)
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The Green Mile (1999)
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#85
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A
Night at the Opera (1935)
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Full Metal Jacket (1987)
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#86
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Platoon (1986)
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2001:
A Space Odyssey (1968)
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#87
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12
Angry Men (1957)
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Inglorious Basterds (2009)
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#88
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Bringing Up Baby (1938)
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The
Great Dictator (1940)
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#89
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Sixth Sense (1999)
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Braveheart
(1995)
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#90
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Swing
Time (1936)
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The Bicycle Thief (1948)
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#91
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Sophie’s Choice (1982)
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The
Apartment (1960)
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#92
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Up (2009)
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Goodfellas
(1990)
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#93
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The French Connection (1971)
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Downfall
(2004)
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#94
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Pulp Fiction (1994)
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Gran
Torino (2008)
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#95
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The
Last Picture Show (1971)
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Metropolis (1927)
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#96
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Do The Right Thing (1989)
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The
Sting (1973)
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#97
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Blade Runner (1982)
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Gladiator
(2000)
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#98
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Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942)
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)
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#99
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Toy Story (1995)
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Unforgiven
(1992)
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#100
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Ben Hur (1959)
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The
Elephant Man (1980)
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Next week: Double Indemnity vs. It's a Wonderful Life and All About Eve vs. Se7en.
